


Bright and Heavy

by quiet__tiger



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Contemplative, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-23 05:12:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10712895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quiet__tiger/pseuds/quiet__tiger
Summary: Tim watches, listens, and learns.





	Bright and Heavy

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "Mismatched."
> 
> This is Pre-Robin Tim then Robin!Tim.

Batman was darkness. Strength. Power. Stoicism. Gloom.

And maybe a little craziness.

Robin was brightness. Energy. Humor. Fun. Gaiety.

They were each those things and a lot more, and Tim Drake knew he was spending too much time studying the vigilantes, but he found their interplay fascinating.

The way Batman was in charge, dominant, but Robin often edged him out when it came to certain things. Like acrobatics. Or quips. They rolled, flowed so well together, and it was captivating to a curious kid with a slight hero worship complex.

Tim watched the heroes from rooftops, doorways, alleyways, watched the occasional blurry clip on the news or the Internet. He watched to study them, to learn more, to figure out why they worked the way they did. _How_ they worked the way they did.

It all fascinated him, the way Batman needed Robin, and Robin thrived under Batman. They were so different, at opposite ends of some continuum he couldn’t quite define, but it all _worked_ to fight crime, fight the bad guys, save Gotham.

His observations weren’t new, not to Tim or anyone else who paid enough attention, but that didn’t mean there was an answer or culmination of information, either.

When Dick stopped being Robin, and Bruce started working with that other kid, things changed. There wasn’t quite that interplay between Batman and Robin. The chemistry was gone.

And then that other Robin died, and everything went to hell. Batman needed Robin, needed that contrast of brightness to his darkness, and Tim didn’t want to see what would happen without it.

Through determination, Tim worked his way into Batman’s inner circle, and became Robin himself. He worked hard to get in shape, to learn the chemistry, biology, anatomy, physics, and geometry necessary to become a crime fighter working to meet Batman’s standards. He was both in more pain than he’d ever been in before, and happier than he’d ever been in his life.

Sometimes he trains with Dick, and it’s more fun than he imagined. Dick is smarter than he thought, and even more entertaining. He knows he’ll never be better than Dick at a lot of things, but that’s okay because he’s better at other things. They each have different strengths that complement each other. They wind up making a pretty good team once Tim is ready for the street.

Working with Bruce, with Batman, is a lot different. He’s even more intense than Tim had imagined. He was always watchful, often glaring, and always, always, always making him learn things better, do things better, just be better. Lessons with him are hard, physically and mentally challenging, but Tim had been expecting that.

It makes every little compliment that much more rewarding.

He and Bruce, Batman, are different, too. They are able to complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

But far more often than is settling, Tim hears people comment about how similar he and Bruce are. The way they seem to compete in levels of brooding, intelligence, intensity, freakishness.

He hadn’t ever considered himself as similar to Bruce, to Batman; he’d wanted to be Robin, the Boy Wonder, the lightness that kept Batman’s darkness at bay.

But as time goes on, as his world crashes down around him over and over, Tim can’t help but notice the similarities between himself and his grave mentor.

They really aren’t all that different.

And it scares him.


End file.
